


Lockdown

by hanarmontana



Series: Mass Effect: Prospectus [7]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Gen, Science Fiction, Video Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24781186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanarmontana/pseuds/hanarmontana
Summary: As a small group wearing Cerberus armor attempts an attack on Grissom Academy, Shepard and Traynor try and take Gillian back to the Normandy; Thane helps Jack keep her students safe.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni, Jack | Subject Zero/Thane Krios
Series: Mass Effect: Prospectus [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/358235
Kudos: 3





	Lockdown

Two soldiers in Cerberus armor headed down the empty hall, neither one really taking their job all too seriously. One stopped and opened a door to a classroom, put their finger to their helmet and turned on their headlight in order to peer inside. After a minute they waved at the other, giving the all clear, and they continued down the hall, the classroom door shutting behind them. The other soldier sighed and shook their head.

"I didn't sign up to murder kids," they said, "I thought we were going to make a change, you know? Make a difference? I'm not here for just general wanton destruction."

"Well, you gotta start somewhere," the other replied, "Besides, nobody's saying you _have_ to shoot anyone, okay? Just take it easy. I doubt you'll be let go if you refuse to attack children. Nobody's got a gun to your head."

As the words left their mouth, the click of a hammer being drawn was heard behind them and the soldier sighed.

"Somebody has a gun to my head, don't they?" they asked, before the shot rang out, firing a bullet from the back of their helmet through their skull and out the visor in the front. The other soldier quickly spun around, only to find they were alone now, and their heart started racing. How could someone be there and then just as quickly not be there? It didn't make sense. Sure, this school was known for its talented and often times dangerous students, and sure the instructors were known to be just as bad if not worse, but still. This was different, this was assassin behavior. They continued backing up until they heard something drop behind them and before they could react felt a pair of hands undo their oxygen tubes from the back of their armor and begin wrapping them around their neck. The soldier dropped their gun and began clawing at the tubes, desperately trying to get them free. Goddammit, they thought, these things were not even meant to be on the armor unless they were somewhere without oxygen, and yet they always forgot to remove them. After a minute or so, the soldier dropped to their knees and died on the floor.

Thane dropped from the ceiling and wiped his hands on his coat as Jack reloaded her gun and came out from the shadows nearby, glancing down and gently kicking the soldiers limp foot. She looked back at Thane and nodded.

"Strangled by the very thing meant to help them breath, how ironic," she said.

"I hope you're keeping score, because I believe I'm ahead in the creative deaths department," Thane said, making her smirk.

"Come on," she said, "We still have others to take out."

* * *

The door to the office opened back up and Shepard, Traynor and Niftu re-entered, immediately spotting the Cerberus mans remains splattered all over the walls, the desk and everything else. Gillian was seated back in her chair, her hands on her knees, her eyes wide, like she was unsure of what she had just done. Kahlee rose from underneath her desk, her hands over her ears and exhaled, glancing between Gillian and the Normandy crew. She stood up and looked at Shepard while Niftu and Traynor saw to Gillian. Kahlee pulled her gun from her hip and cocked it, staring Shepard right in the eyes.

"You have to take them out of here," she said, "I'll cover you as you make it back to your ship. With her on board, you'll be even more of a target, but it's necessary right now."

"I'm used to being a target, trust me," Shepard said, "Where do we go once we undock? They'll surely just follow us."

"I'm going to write down a set of coordinates for you to jump through the relay to," Kahlee said, walking back to her desk and picking up a pen, writing on a small piece of paper, and then tearing it off and handing it to Shepard, "This is my home. Head there. Believe me when I tell you it's secure. Being the head of the school, they've made sure of that. You won't be followed, and even if you are, they won't live long enough once they reach it to find you."

Shepard took the paper and tucked it into a satchel on her armor, nodding. The two women helped Traynor get Gillian up from the chair and together they all headed out of the office and down the hall towards the docks. Standing in the doorway, watching them head down, Shepard looked at Niftu, who had now pulled his own pistol from his hip and cocked it. He glanced up at her and shook his head.

"You realize this is, like, incredibly suicidal," he said.

"I need you to cover me, I'm going to take the lead, so take the back," Shepard said.

"You got it chief," Niftu replied, as they headed into formation.

* * *

The big doors to the cafeteria opened and Jack and Thane entered, surprised to see the large crowd of students who'd presumably barricaded themselves within it. They all immediately, upon seeing Jack, stood up and rushed to speak to her, but she pushed her way through, patting some on the shoulders, and climbed on top of one of the dining hall tables. She put her hands on her hips and looked out at the crowd of impressionable young students, many of whom were students of hers solely, whom she felt she owed to protect. She sighed and shook her head, unsure of how to start.

"There's been a breach, as I'm sure you'll all aware," she finally said, "I don't know it was that did the right thing and tipped off the warning system but thank you, you might've saved our lives. But now I'm going to need you all to save eachothers lives. There's dangerous men here, men in Cerberus armor, men who will not hesitate one iota to killing a child if they see you, but that's where you have the advantage. Being children, they don't think you're dangerous. They think you're weak. Now it's time to show them who's weak. I know some of you as being the fiercest fighters I've ever had the pleasure of working with or knowing, and I guarantee that if anyone can get us out of this situation, it's you kids. So, who's ready to kick some ass?"

The kids all raised their fists in solidarity, cheering, as Thane leaned against the wall, arms folded, and smiled watching this display of leadership. Just then an alert light blinked on Jacks wrist monitor, and she quickly diverted her attention to it, opening up a comms channel and hearing Kahlee's voice in her earpiece.

"Jack?" Kahlee asked, "It's Sanders. I'm afraid your time at this school is at an end. I need you to report quickly to the docking bay, we have Gillian and we're handing her over to Commander Shepard of the Normandy. But she won't go without you."

"How long do we have?" Jack asked, checking the time on her wrist.

"I'd say about 10 minutes, if you're lucky," Kahlee replied.

"We're currently holed up in the northmost cafeteria, so we should easily be able to make it there, given there's not too many hangups," Jack said.

Just then the door opened and a Cerberus soldier entered, who immediately raised his gun upon seeing the crowd of kids and just as immediately dropped to his death on the floor when Thane's knife slid quietly and quickly into his neck through his helmet. Thane pulled the knife free and wiped it clean, giving Jack the go ahead. She diverted her attention back to Kahlee.

"We'll head right over there," she said, hanging up and looking back at the kids, "I need to be escorted to the docking bay. Those who think they can do that for me come with me, and those who think they'd be better off helping others here, stay here."

Jack stepped down and walked to Thane as a small handful of students began surrounding her, clearly ready and willing to help them through the facility to their destination. Jack looked at Thane as she pulled an energy pistol from her other hip and prepared it, chewing on her lip. Thane walked across the hall to the opposite doors they'd come in from and hit the button to open them. As they slid open, he threw his knife through the smallest crack of the opening and when the doors had finally opened fully they saw another dead Cerberus soldier lying there, knife in the center of his helmet. Thane picked his knife back up and the small crew headed out into the halls, towards the Normandy.

"You're pretty handy with that thing," Jack said, catching up to him, "I'm impressed."

"Don't let me making it look easy deceive you, it took years of practice," Thane said.

"I believe it," Jack said, stopping and putting her gun to a door, firing a shot and hearing a man fall down dead behind it, "Practice makes perfect," she added.

* * *

Shepard and her crew arrived at the docks but were quickly swept into hiding behind some crates upon seeing the enormous amount of Cerberus soldiers occupying the space. They hadn't anticipated this large of a turn out; sure, it was obvious they'd have to fight some to get to their ship, but this...this was like an entire army waiting for them. Thankfully the Normandy looked untouched, and the lights were all off. Joker, Liara, Mordin and everyone else onboard likely went into shutdown mode when the Cerberus soldiers had arrived, in order to appear uninhabited so they wouldn't be hit as well.

Shepard looked at Niftu and Niftu pointed quietly at the small round thing attached to her hip satchel. Right, she thought. Mordin's EMP. She'd almost forgotten about it. She quickly nodded back at Niftu and removed the round bulb, quickly arming it and then looked at the others in her group. She motioned for them all to lean in so she could whisper, which they did.

"When I throw this thing, it's going to detonate upon impact, and when it does it's going to shut down all electronic devices; energy weapons, ships, comms systems, you name it. Our ship, being off already, won't be affected and that'll give us some time to get away," Shepard said, "Are you all prepared to make a rush for the ship? Kahlee, are you coming on board, or?"

"Well I certainly can't stay here," Kahlee said, "Once you leave they'll take after you, and our instructors will know what to do and the students can take care of themselves. I'll go with you to my home, we can discuss strategy and further movement from there."

"Alright then," Shepard said, "Get ready, here goes nothing."

With that, Shepard tossed the EMP bulb over her shoulder and waited for the blast. A few moments went by and nothing, and then, without warning, an enormous blue light flooded the room and everyone of the Cerberus soldiers screamed in surprise. On cue, Shepard and the others leapt up from their spot and headed towards the Normandy. She couldn't signal to Joker to start the ship, but lo and behold, it started up anyway, and she grinned. Joker always knew just what to do. The doors to the Normandy began opening and everyone rushed on board, with the exception of Niftu, who was trapped behind a small barrel. Shepard ran back down and slid past him, grabbing his arm and tugging him up to ride piggyback as she circled back around, shot the soldier who'd pinned him there and headed onboard.

Jack, Thane and the students arrived in the area just as the EMP pulse was beginning to die down, and the soldiers were starting to get their weapons back. One student quickly, using their biotic abilities, threw a shield around themselves, Thane and Jack and helped them through the firepower while the other biotic students took the weapons directly out of the hands of the Cerberus operatives. As they reached the Normandy, it was already beginning to hover off the dock and Thane and Jack had to help one another up to the doors. The doors snapped shut behind them, and the Normandy began to pull away as Jack rushed to a window to watch her students destroy the men who'd tried so hard to hurt them.

As the Normandy undocked and headed out of the bay, back into the open space sky, Jack leaned against the wall and slid down, covering her face with her hands. Thane joined her and the two sat in silence for a moment, both completely wiped out from their small excursion through the battlefield. After a moment he patted her shoulder and she looked at him.

"I'm sorry your goodbye to your students was so abrupt," Thane said.

"Thanks, they're tough kids, they'll get past it," Jack said, trying to smile, but finding it very hard to right now given the dire circumstances.

"Hey, if you were their teacher, yeah, they'll get past it," Thane added.

Shepard let the others get situated as she went to the lab, Niftu still riding on her back, to find Mordin. He was holed up in the lab, quietly working on something. As the doors shut behind her, he turned to face her, swiveling on his stool and pulling his goggles up from his eyes.

"I see my EMP bulb worked. Good to know. Need to make more in the future, indeed. Handy little tools," he said.

"Mordin, what the ever loving hell is going on," Shepard asked, as Mordins eyes wandered from her up to Niftu, his brow raising.

"Hey, the lady asked you a question," Niftu replied, "She's down there, not up here."

"I believe Miss Andersons abilities emit a powerful aura, and the Cerberus, if that's indeed what they are, are looking to harness that energy to use it for something," he said, "Good we got her out of there. Sitting ducks, they were. Certainly much safer aboard a war ship, I think. Then again, maybe not. Last few weeks not so promising."

"Why would they need a biotic to-" Shepard started, but was immediately interrupted when Kahlee entered, much to everyone surprise. She stopped behind Shepard and everyone turned to face her. Kahlee exhaled and ran a hand through her hair before beginning to pace, wondering how to begin. Finally, after a minute she spoke.

"Thank you for taking us," she finally said, "I...I have never seen anything like that before. We've had attacks before, they're rare but they happen, but nothing ever on that scale. I'm wondering, however, if they decided to attack when they knew you were there to wipe you both out in one fell swoop or if they were unaware you'd be there, because who'd like to fight Commander Shepard, right?"

"Hah, thank you for the vote of confidence," Shepard said, "If they were in fact trying to take us both out at once I'm curious as to how they knew we were there. Certainly they could've been cloaked, hiding out, waiting for us to show up but still, I'm beginning to suspect someone we trust is someone we ought not to."

At this sentiment, Niftu began feeling uneasy and tried to change the course of the conversation.

"So where are we headed?" he asked.

"We're going to my home," Kahlee said, "From there we can discuss where to move next."

* * *

Kahlee Sanders lived in a very private area on a small nearby planet.

Her home was certainly well protected, surrounded by pylons holding a powerful shield and auto turrets ready to fire the first foreign enemy they saw come their way. The Normandy didn't even park nearby, simply for the sake of safety, and instead she, Shepard, Gillian and Jack took a small shuttle to the house. Kahlee sent ahead verification codes to the weapons systems so they wouldn't be taken out upon arrival. When they got there, Gillian was taken by Jack to the kitchen, so she could have something to eat. It'd been a long and stressful day, after all, and a girl needs to keep her strength up. Kahlee poured herself a glass of scotch and then stood in front of the large windows looking out over the landscape below, Shepard stopping right beside her to admire the view. Kahlee swirled the ice in her glass around a bit and looked down at her drink.

"Now that we're alone, I think I ought to let you in on some things," she said, "...Gillian, as you are fully well aware of now, is not just an ordinary biotic. She's extremely dangerous, and being extremely dangerous that means that if she were to fall into the wrong hands, she'd be extremely dangerous to _us_. We cannot let that happen. She needs to be kept safe, Shepard, at all costs."

"I agree," Shepard said, "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

"No. About a month ago I intercepted a transmission on the way back from a collective gathering of educators and innovative people within the industrial community. I was by myself, in an unmarked shuttle, so nobody would recognize and fire upon me. Granted, I...I wasn't really flying through any particularly dangerous part of space, but either way. Anyhow, I intercepted a transmission. It was entirely in code. I couldn't make it out, not at all, but it seemed to be some sort of...mechanical transmission."

"In code?"

"Binary," Kahlee replied, "Binary code. Something a robot would send. Send to whom? I have no idea, and what was it about? I have no idea. But I figured it was important, so when I got home I recorded it onto a data disk from my logs. I'm like to give it to you, because it might just have something to do with what you're dealing with."

Kahlee set her glass down on the small table beside her couch and headed to a painting hanging on the wall behind them. She pulled up her sleeve on her uniform and underneath was a wrist communicator. She punched in a code and the painting, which now revealed itself to be merely an extremely realistic hologram, faded away, leaving a small wall safe. She punched in yet another code and a few shelving units turned to face outwards, revealing a few clearly precious belongings. Kahlee grabbed the data disk and slid it off the shelf, handing it back to Shepard, who glanced at it momentarily as Kahlee rehid her valuables.

"You didn't tell anyone else about this?" she asked.

"I knew Anderson wanted me to speak with you," she said, "That's why I waited. I figured who better to solve this mystery than the most celebrated space captain the academy has ever seen? I trust you'll find out what the deal is behind it, and act accordingly."

"And what if acting accordingly means killing someone?" Shepard asked.

"Then by all means, blow them the hell away," Kahlee said, smirking and sipping her drink.

After Shepard, Gillian and Jack returned to the shuttle and headed back to the Normandy, Kahlee sat down on her couch. She exhaled and rubbed her eyes, before swiping at the air with her hands, pulling up a few screens in front of her and beginning to go through them. She pulled up Gillian's file and began reading through it. As she reached the excerpt at the very bottom, she sighed.

_"Has been prone to communicating with mechanical devices, clearly well versed in robotic language. Has done a lot of research concerning the Geth. Could warrant of further investigation."_

Kahlee flipped the screens off and sat there for a moment, unsure of how to feel. Had she done the right thing? She hoped so. She'd given Shepard enough, vague certainly, but enough information to deal with things when they reared their head. Sitting there, she heard the doors behind her open and could hear their footsteps approaching. She shut her eyes and dipped her head, as they stopped beside her and looked down, their cervos whirring nonstop. Kahlee finally looked up at that one eye they all seemed to have built into them, and could feel their mechanical hand dropping onto her shoulder.

"You did the right thing," they said.

"Did I? Because it feels like I didn't. All my life we were told not to trust you, and yet...you've been the most trust worthy one this side of Shepard that I've met in ages. You promise me you aren't going to harm them, right?" Kahlee asked.

"I promise," they replied, "We want nothing more than to help defeat a common enemy. Now she won't suspect you when we arrive. She'll think it was all an act of coincidence. We think you should look into tightening your schools security a bit more, however. They will likely be back."

They turned and reached back into the closet they'd been waiting in, grabbing a rather large pulse rifle and slinging it over their shoulder. As they reached the front door, Kahlee stood up and looked at them, and they stopped, almost as if they were aware they were being watched.

"Yes?" they asked.

"You're not going to have an easy time getting them to trust you," Kahlee said.

"We know," they said, "But we will make them trust us. We have to. The fate of everyone lies in our budding alliance. And when all is said and done, perhaps the Geth and the humans can once again work together. Thank you, Commander Sanders. You've been of the upmost help," they said before opening her front door and turning back fully to face her, "Please disengage your home defense weapons before we reach the ground. We would not like to be blown up today."

And with that, the Geth began their descent to the ground, off to find Shepard and finally change the world.


End file.
